Stanford Humanities Center Stanford University

This topic exposes ironies and offers a cautionary tale: During World War I the standard maps of Asia Minor by Heinrich Kiepert and his son Richard become a mainstay for the British General Staff. However, serious flaws lurk in the Germans’ work, and alertness to them can curb our temptation to fault classical cartography for its arrested growth.

As part of an international team, Dr Tony Freeth has been a central figure in an extraordinary voyage of discovery: every new revelation has reinforced a sense of shock about this highly sophisticated ancient Greek astronomical calculating machine. It is one of the true wonders of the ancient world.

Prof. Suzanne Marchand presents ‘The Great War and the Ancient World’. The First World War has been rightly called ‘the first modern war’—but Europeans came into it deeply and richly versed in the literature, history, imagery, and languages of the ancient world. This lecture treats the impact of the war on European classical ideals, imagery, and education, extending its inquiries into the interwar period.

Relevant Links:
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/classics/cgi-bin/web/eitner

The myth of Medea was not fixed or static, and in this lecture Prof. Taplin will show how Euripides made crucial innovations in his tragedy of 431 BCE. Then by scrutinizing vase-paintings, especially one first published in 1984, and papyrus fragments, especially one first published in 2006, he will reveal how her story was repeatedly varied and re-evaluated during the next 100 years in response to the challenge set by that sensational dramatization.

Rachel Donadio, European Culture Correspondent and former Rome Bureau Chief for the New York Times, discussed the impact of Berlusconi's rise and fall, and what's next for Italy and a Europe divided between technocrats and politicians.

The Stanford Humanities Center sponsors advanced research into the historical, philosophical, literary, artistic, and cultural dimensions of the human experience. Humanities scholars explore the many ways in which people, from every period of history and from every corner of the globe, encounter and address the challenges of our world. Humanities research preserves the great accomplishments of the past, helps us understand the world we live in, and gives us tools to imagine the future.